


Hanabira no Shukufuku (Petal’s Blessing)

by FraustiNoSnowman



Category: Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: Fluff, Hanahaki Disease, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, real life AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-14
Updated: 2021-03-17
Packaged: 2021-03-22 10:41:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 10,661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30037464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FraustiNoSnowman/pseuds/FraustiNoSnowman
Summary: Dream started coughing flowers, and he learns that gradually it will kill him if he doesn’t find who he loves and makes the other person love him back.Hanahaki is a fictional disease where one gradually dies of suffocation from flowers and petals from unrequited love.
Relationships: Clay | Dream/GeorgeNotFound (Video Blogging RPF)
Comments: 14
Kudos: 32





	1. Sakura Petals

**Author's Note:**

> Follow me @FraustHaruka on Twitter! I draw and post works <3

It was a random morning when Dream realized that something was wrong with him.

He hadn’t caught a cold, nor the coronavirus, for sure — and he knew because he had taken note to himself not to, knowing that there was a big lore stream coming up and didn’t want a busted voice to ruin everything Tommy had planned just a few days ago — but he couldn’t help but feel like there was something pressing onto him. A boulder, but just lighter than that. 

Needless to say he was concerned, but he quickly shook it off his head when something more important distracted him: some editing, and hopping onto George’s or Sapnap’s, and Quackity’s streams when they happen to be streaming, and this carried on for a few more days before he noticed that he started coughing more often, and that was when he started to get worried. 

“Bro, you sound sick, in a bad way.” Sapnap had pointed it out to him, as if it wasn’t obvious enough to him already. The coughs weren’t that bad. They didn’t cut him off at weird times, nor did they hurt him too badly when they kicked in. They were more like allergies, except he never actually had any unless having Patches stick her tail in his nose counted as one. 

He cleared his throat before answering. “I’m probably fine, it might be Patches shedding or something.” He shrugged it off, knowing it’d probably be fine. 

“But it’s literally in the middle of November, what do you mean she’s shedding fur?” Sapnap retorted. The man had a point — Patches never really shedded, and even when she did it was in the hottest days in Florida, not that Florida wasn’t hot in the first place, and she would only occasionally roll around the carpet and leaving a small patch of multi-colored fur lying there. Even so, Dream would clean it up whenever he sees some, even just for the aesthetics. 

“It’ll get better, I promise. And if it doesn’t I will go to the doctors or something I swear.” He answered nonchalantly. Sapnap didn’t seem so pleased but didn’t bicker, which Dream appreciated. There wasn’t much to do about it anyways. It was just a cough, nothing else, and he definitely would survive a cough, given that no other symptom showed up. 

He got onto the internet later that day, looking for potential causes for his sudden sickness. 

Covid.

No. He’s been tasting everything perfectly fine. His temperature never went above 37.2ºC no matter how many times he poked his armpits and ears and even his mouth with the dumb thermometers — the last thing he was to try was to shove it up his ass, and that he couldn’t bring himself to do. 

A flu. 

Bullshit. He didn’t even go outside. The truth was that he did, but for five minutes each three or four days to toss his trash into the bin just outside of his room. He had stashed enough frozen food for himself to be able to feed himself for weeks, not to mention how he barely moves from his desk, therefore not needing to eat as much, so he basically never needed to go to the supermarket unless something dire has happened. 

A cold.

Just as previously mentioned. No. 

Heartburn.

His stomach has been acting pretty normally, so probably not. 

Vaping? 

Smoking?

This was getting ridiculous, so he decided google might just not be the best solution to his problems. He thought he knew better. 

Lying on bed, looking at his ceiling to nothing in particular, he coughed to himself. Funny, you’d think someone usually whispers to themselves when they’re thinking about things, but Dream right there was coughing so much that he couldn’t talk to himself while lying down, and there he was thinking that the cough wasn’t a problem at all. Nothing has changed in the past few weeks, and even if they did they probably had no connection with his coughs anyways. Still, he dosed off thinking to himself, scratching out invalid answers in his mind as he pondered over the same things over and over again. 

It was not until the next Wednesday evening did he realize something was indeed wronger than he had expected. 

He wasn’t streaming, nor on others’ streams, just chilling with George and Sapnap in a discord call, with George and Sapnap’s face cams on, sipping iced coke, something he didn’t usually allow himself have but that day was a break day, and talking about nothing in particular. 

“Speaking of pizzas,” Sapnap turned the conversation with a random comment. “George what’s your favorite type of pizza? I never got the chance to know.” 

“We were literally just talking about video ideas, Sapnap, how did we ‘speak of pizzas’?” George was visibly confused as he leaned closer towards his camera. Dream did his character wheeze in the background, finding the conversation absolutely hilarious.

“Okay then fine. Sorry for interrupting your conversation then because I just wanted to ask. So can you tell me please?” Sapnap rolled his eyes. Dream kept on wheezing, ended up having to cough because of that. 

“Fine. Whatever. I like-” George’s explanation of his favorite pizza was suddenly cut off by a cough way more intense than they’d like it to be, followed by a muffled “shit” on Dream’s end and the sound of a chair pulling away before he deafened. 

“Dream?” Sapnap asked, even though Dream couldn’t hear anything. 

Dream, on the other hand, was utterly terrified, because that inhuman cough he had made him cough something up, and no, it wasn’t the usual getting-something-stuck-in-your-windpipes-so-you-have-to-keep-on-coughing, because Dream never recalled accidentally swallowing a petal. It was shot into the air from Dream’s mouth before drifting quietly to the ground, landing in front of Dream’s feet, and by now he was already pulled away, covering his mouth to attempt to hide his shock from what he just witnessed. 

“Why in the world was that even a thing?” He asked himself quietly before hearing his phone buzz. He snatched it off the desktop and peered at the lighting screen. It was George. 

“Hey where r u?”

“R u alright?”

“Do u need help?” 

That reminded him that his friends were probably freaked out, if not desperately searching for help already, so he took a few seconds to at least hop back into the call to calm his friends before he could calm himself. After all, he didn’t deserve both Sapnap and George to worry about him at the same time. 

He threw his headphones and undeafened, immediately greeted by Sapnap and George’s voices. 

“Holy crap you’re back,” That was George’s British accent. “I’m so glad you didn’t die right there on the spot, and I thank you for coming back to us.” 

Dream giggled slightly. “I’m alright. I was wheezing too hard and forgot I had a cough. It hurt a little but I’m fine.” He didn’t know why he decided to blatantly lie in front of his friends, but it was probably because he didn’t have a face cam on that no one else in the call knew what happened to him. Both his friends looked like they believed in it, which was good.

Maybe it was because he didn’t want to believe in it either. After all, watching a flower petal, a pink and thin one to be exact, shoot out of your mouth was too much of a fantasy to believe, though he noted to himself that he might look it up once again.

“Then I suggest you to take some rest,” Sapnap said. “Maybe text us next morning or something to see if you’ve gotten better. I’m no professional though.” 

“Neither am I,” Said George. “But please do take some rest.”

He nodded, briefly before remembering that neither of his friends could see him. “Then I’ll hop off now, thanks guys and good night too!” He said before disconnecting from the call; the moment he did, he immediately collapsed into his chair, gasping for air as he frantically searched his breath. Eventually, he did, but that was about 2 minutes later and the moment when he stopped freaking out, he coughed again, this time 2 petals came, both the exact same looking: pink, thin, half transparent, light, clean, and untouched. 

He leaned in onto his monitor again, quitting discord and pulling up his browser again, frantically typing in “coughing petals” into google. 

He got “list of fictional diseases” from wikipedia, and on the tab he saw “hanahaki disease” and “hanahaki byou” that matched exactly what he described. 

The page reads:

“Hanahaki disease is a fictional disease where the victim of unrequited or one sided love begins to vomit or cough up petals and flowers of a flowering plant growing in their lungs, which will eventually grow large enough to render breathing impossible if untreated. There is no set time…” 

He had to stop himself there, squinting at the words. 

First, unrequited love? He didn’t even know he loved someone, especially someone deserving him to cough so much he barely knew what his name was — and the coughing certainly didn’t help with his ADHD by the bit. He constantly found himself completely forgetting what he wanted to do because he had to take seconds off coughing into his elbow: the only plus he was getting out of it was probably how he got into a habit of making a checklist, purely because he couldn’t live without one. 

And secondly, make breathing impossible if untreated? Alas, how would you even treat a disease like this? It was not like people actually got that disease anyways. Didn’t the page say this was fictional? It certainly isn’t, apparently, according to Dream’s case, and he didn’t want to imagine doctors cutting open his chest and yoinking a flowering plant, in this case it looked like a sakura to him, out of his lungs. To be honest, that would probably kill him multiple times. 

Finally, no set time for death? That was very concerning to Dream, especially when the man had just started to become famous, and the last thing he wanted to do, after gaining freedom, fame, friends, and a little bit of savings for his future life, was to die out of a stupid disease caused by flowers and love. He didn’t imagine himself falling in love for someone, not until that moment, and it would then take him forever to figure out who he was in love with, and reconcile his feelings not just to look for love, but to put himself out of his misery, because according to that wikipedia page this shit’s going to get worse by the day. 

Groaning in his chair, he decided to whip his phone up again and call Sapnap, who definitely wasn’t on bed yet, judging from the fact that it was literally still 9p.m. for Sapnap. 

After a few beeps, he heard Sapnap pick up the phone on his end.  
“Didn’t I tell you you need to sleep?” Sapnap asked. It was a rhetorical question, obviously, since Dream was calling him right on the spot. It would’ve been creepy if Dream was asleep. 

“Yeah well,” Dream murmured. “I didn’t exactly listen. Neither was I exactly a hundred percent truthful when I told you guys it was just a very bad cough.”

“And? What else then?” Dream could literally hear Sapnap raising a brow, pulling the classic “please continue I am listening” face that he had ever since he was twelve.

“Whatever I say next please don’t tell anyone,” Dream said. It wasn’t his intention to hide it from George, but something in him told him that George might not be the best receiver of whatever news he had to bring up. “Not even George please.”

Sapnap hummed on the other end. “Get to it.” 

“Fine,” Dream took a deep breath, which earned him 2 more light coughs and a petal. He swore under his breath. “Well I was coughing, right? And a flower petal came flying out of my mouth, and I got hell’a scared so I panicked and told you guys a lie before I hung up. And right after that I kept coughing up flowers and now I have 4 petals under my desk staring at me, but that’s not important-”

“Holy shit dude, you’re ranting,” Sapnap said. “But please go on, I’m sorry.” 

“You’re alright,” Dream sighed. “And then I looked it up on the internet, because that was obviously the smartest thing to do, and it turns out…” He explained everything he read on that page to Sapnap, who, after Dream finished, replied with absolute silence. 

“Please say something.” Dream muttered under his breath. Sapnap inhaled sharply, the sound almost painful to Dream’s ears on the phone. 

“I’m sorry,” Sapnap gasped. “But I… I just don’t know how to respond to that, holy shit dude. First though, I’ve only seen this in a manga or anime somewhere, so I never thought it could be real, but if that’s the only result you came up with we can assume it’s right… and second: you? In love and not knowing you are in love?” 

“Right, that’s the same question I asked myself.” Dream put his face into his hands, desperately searching his mind for possible people. 

Was it his sister’s childhood friend? What was her name? Charlotte? Sherry?Probably not, since he could barely remember her name.

Was it the Dunkin’ staff he saw three weeks ago? 

Probably not. No offense but she looked twice the age Dream was. 

If not, than who could it be?

“Dream,” Sapnap’s voice cut him off his train of thought.

“I’m sorry, I was thinking who it could be. Honestly dude, I have no clue. I’ve forgotten what it felt like fall in love, and that is to say that if I am actually in love with someone.” He confessed. 

“I think this is legit,” Sapnap suggested, quietly. “And we need to be quick, right? Like if you don’t find out sooner or later you’re literally going to die, and I don’t want that and neither do you.” 

Dream coughed twice again and gulped. “Yeah. I don’t want to die.”


	2. More Than Just Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dream finds out who he is in love with, and it struck him differently, not knowing what he would do next, and whether if he would do anything next.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am speedrunnin’

The next morning he woke up from, as expected, a series of bad coughs and a few petals lying next to him. He groaned as he climbed out of bed, auto-piloting his feet towards the bathroom, hoping to take a cold shower to wake him up and to think properly. He had texted Tommy, telling him that he might not be able to go completely as planned, knowing that his coughing will most definitely impact how demanding he sounded, and Tommy told him not to worry, since he could always use /msg if he needed to back out. 

The stream was in a few hours. 2 hours to be exact. He still had a little time beforehand, so he thought he might spend some time brainstorming, and maybe it’ll help him calm down, or at least smash some sanity into him before work. 

He first started by drawing on the glass in his shower with his shampoo. His finger traced a heart and a flower, connecting the two with a faint line. Water dripped from the patterns, droplets flowing down to the ground. He sighed. 

For once, the Dream had no clue what he was supposed to do, and decided put every person he knew in a list on his PC and eliminate them one by one, hoping that it’ll help more. So he did. Immediately after scrambling out of the shower, he fetched himself a glass of milk and slumped onto his chair and pulled out a word document. 

First of all, close friends. He searched his mind for every single name. And that led to an important question: was he straight? Did he like guys or not and should he put guys into the list?

To be honest he had never thought about it because he never felt the need to. He hadn’t fell in love for a long long time, especially after he broke up with his ex. 

The word “love”, spelt L O V E, is too strong for him to handle, so he didn’t bother caring. 

He’s dated in total of 3 people through his entire lifetime, and all of them were girls, or at least identified as girls when they dated. He had lost contact with two of them because they were middle-schoolers when they dated so he probably would never know how they were doing now. Not that he cared a lot. He didn’t.

He growled loudly, scaring Patches, who was silently licking herself on the bed.

“What am I supposed to do?” He shouted to his window to no one in particular. The garbage man outside looked confused, but he pretended he didn’t see. 

Maybe calling Sapnap, again, will be a good idea. 

He texted him. 

“Hey can I call you now?” He typed into their chats. Moments later Sapnap called, the popout screen scared him so. 

“Hey,” Sapnap said. “Whattup?” 

“I’ve been trying not to die,” Dream answered, trying to make the atmosphere as humorous as he could get it. “And I wanted to make a list of names so I can narrow it down, and honestly I don’t really know even if this is true. I mean, if I was actually in love, I would’ve known already, right?” 

Sapnap went silent for a while. “And you’re struggling because…”

God, Sapnap knew him too well. 

“I don’t know my sexuality, at least, I am doubting myself right now.” He concluded after searching his mind for words.

“I thought so.” 

Dream was shocked because of Sapnap’s answer, not just because Sapnap saw straight through him but something other than that too. God, a friend from age 13 does do that to people sometimes. 

“What do you mean?” 

“I mean,” Sapnap started. “It’s not that hard, considering you probably haven’t seen many women in the past, I don’t know, 3 months except for Niki, Puffy, and Hannah, and since it’s just the three of them it’ll be easy to go through, and if you were like dead straight you wouldn’t be calling me with a tone like that.” When Sapnap said it it sounded so easy. 

“So what do I do now?” Dream found himself asking, even though he probably knew that Sapnap didn’t know the answers to that question either. 

Sapnap thought for a while, and it sounded like he was kicking a can on the floor onto the wall when he was thinking. “I suggest you just write down everyone, including me, although you probably don’t like me but anyways, and write down everything you think of when you think of them. Like, if you write Quackity, for example, write down how he speaks Spanish, he’s Mexican, he’s short… you know? Maybe that’ll help. If you need me I’ll stay on call with you, I don’t have anything planned. Is that doable?” 

Sapnap sounded like a concerned parent, and he couldn’t help but grin at that thought. 

“Thank you,” He said. “Nick. I think I’ll hang up though. Thank you so much.” 

“No problem, Clay,” Dream could literally hear Sapnap winking on the other end. “We’re best buddies.” 

Sapnap had finished his sentence before hanging up, leaving Dream alone again, but now he at least had something on his mind. Leaning in on the screen, he started typing, being wary of the time on the bottom right of his screen. 

“Hmmm.” He thought for a few seconds. 

Names. These should be easy. 

Sapnap, or Nick. His best friend since he was 13 years old. 5’8”, or 5’9”, or maybe 5’10”, depending on the conversation they were having his height always seemed to be fluctuating, not that he extensively cared about it or anything. Sapnap used to have blond, or golden, hair when he was younger but as he grew older his hair seemed to turn browner and browner by the day. He liked pizza and fries, but not as much burger. He used to play the violin, but he dropped it somehow. He didn’t play a lot of sports, but will play the occasional football or baseball if he suddenly felt like it. Sapnap had a lot of pets, most of them his parent’s. He didn’t have any siblings, so he had a large room all to him. He was still in college. He doesn’t make a lot of friends in college unless it was required for a project, at least, that was what Sapnap told him and George during a late night call. 

Dream took a deep breath as he pressed “enter” twice, finishing off the small paragraph for Sapnap. Speaking of George, he started a paragraph. 

GeorgeNotFound, or George Henry Davidson, is 23 years old. He is British and lives in Brighton in a house 10 minutes away from the nearest supermarket — he didn’t even know how he knew that — and would rather call an Uber than walk. He should be slightly shorter than Sapnap, according to their arguments, but none of them actually knew. George was not a big fan of alcohol, even though he could drink a bunch when he had to. He didn’t like loud sounds, so clubbing or even bars were never a thing for him. George had Luca, before he got put down, and then got a cat and a dog, no specific name for either, he just called them “cat” and “dog.” So uncreative. He would eat Mac and Cheese for forever if he felt like it, though he would much rather eat Italian food or sushi, just that they are too far away that he didn’t bother going outside. George was colorblind, and he couldn’t see green, Dream’s favorite color, and decided that it would be a great idea if he bought George one of those colorblind glasses, and to his dismay the glasses didn’t completely work but it was satisfactory. George has pale skin, so pale that even the single flirtatious comment will set him on fire, and he recalled sometimes, on late night video chats, George would have to turn off his face cam because he was so flustered because of a horrendously sexual comment any of them made. George has puffy hair, and according to George he wakes up like that, which made Dream extremely jealous because his hair always seemed to turn up like a mess whenever he wakes up late and forgets to comb his hair. George has pretty eyes, and he only noticed one day that his eyes were faintly blue on the inside and brown everywhere else when he accidentally, well not exactly accidentally, zoomed into a picture of George the other day. George would lean onto the side of the chair when he was relaxed like a little girl, and he would always find it cute—

Shit. He loved George, didn’t he?

“Well that was easy,” Dream mumbled to himself. “What now?” 

Looking at the clock, he had 30 minutes before he had to log onto the Dream SMP and act as someone else. As he reached over for his phone, he coughed again, expecting a petal or two, but as an entire flower came flying out, he took a deep breath and held it in, not knowing what to do or how to react. 

It seems as every time Dream finds something new out, his coughing, or Hanahaki, gets worse. He doesn’t know what to do about it, and both options — stopping or continuing — seemed like a stupid decision. Basically, either he would come to a slow and agonizing death without even knowing why, or he will die quicker, but at least there was a way to stop it, somehow. 

Well he guessed there was no going back. 

Dream called Sapnap again, staring at the two paragraphs he just wrote for the two of his friends. 

“Found out something new?” Sapnap commented, probably knowing the answer. 

“Yeah,” Dream replied, shuffling on his seat. “And I don’t know what to think about it.”

“How many did you write before finding out?” Sapnap inquired. 

Dream debated whether if he should tell Sapnap the truth. “Two.” He admitted, knowing it wouldn’t hurt to lie, and he was planning to tell Sapnap everything anyways. 

Sapnap’s line went silent for just a few seconds. “I told you to start with me, and I think you did. And the next person to write about naturally was-”

“George.” They said at the same time. Dream sighed loudly. 

“And what made you realize that you like him? If I am allowed to ask?” Sapnap’s voice turned softer, possibly contemplating on what was going to be done next. 

Dream read him the entire paragraph. 

“…and it just feels like I want to write more and more, and at some point the comments about him turned creepy,” Dream admitted. “And it got to a point where my mind told me to shut up and if I wrote any of that down I would probably be considered a stalker or one of those disgusting stans who would like search your web browser history from 2015 to see what you liked.” 

Sapnap hummed. “So what now?” 

“I don’t know,” Dream deadpanned. “and I hate to say this but, Sapnap, I’m scared, of both. I’m scared of dying, obviously, but you know, George is our best friend and I’m afraid that I’ll lose him and obviously if he doesn’t like me back, which is apparently the thing right now, I will suffocate and choke and die.” 

“I thought we already established that, but alright,” Sapnap said. “I don’t know if you’ve played one of those games before.”  
“What games?” Dream asked, concerned as to Sapnap’s suggestion, given Sapnap’s tone. 

“I don’t know if you’ve played any galgames, but basically you’re trying to build a relationship between a person of your choice, and I think you just got yourself an one way pass where you get to play one yourself, in real life, with a time limit.” Sapnap said. 

That wasn’t where the conversation was going, but it certainly did calm him down. They joked a little bit more about how George didn’t look like he belonged in one of those games and how he would mass purchase chocolates and roses to George’s house until he falls in love with Dream somehow. Although both of them knew it wasn’t going to work, they decided that taking the topic off of something this heavy was the right choice. Dream thanked Sapnap for purposefully ignoring his coughs once in a while, and he tried his best not to think about them too. 

“Right, thank you Sap, so much,” A cough. “I don’t know what to do without you.” 

“I told you, I will always be here. Outside of the Dream SMP lore, of course, you literally wrote a fucking plot to ditch me.” Sapnap joked. 

“Speaking of which, I should probably log on.” Dream noticed how Tommy just messaged him a few seconds ago to tell him to do so. 

Sapnap was grinning. “Go on then, I’m always free to solve your emotional issues. Just text me 5 minutes ahead and I promise I’ll be there.” 

“Thank you and bye then.” Dream murmured as he hang up, simultaneously logging onto the minecraft server which he spent so long on with the first seven other members. 

Somehow his mind just decided that George was a good choice. He wasn’t going to argue against it though. It was George, after all. 

“Hey Big D!” In came Tommy’s voice through his headphones. He cringed slightly and turned the sound down ever so slightly. 

“Tommy,” Dream exclaimed. “Glad to see you,” A cough. “When are you streaming?” 

“In 5 minutes,” Tommy said. “And are you sure you don’t need to just type? I am alright if you just type, you sound plenty sick.” Tommy was right. 

“I might as well, yeah,” Dream admitted. It wasn’t too characteristic of him to step down like that, and yet his mixed emotions sort of forced him to do so — he didn’t want to tell all his fans that he was that sick, especially don’t want them to head him cough up a petal or a flower, even though his face cam wasn’t on. “I’ll copy paste from the script, if that’s alright with you. I don’t type as fast as you do.”

“Stay in the VC though, yeah?” Tommy said. “And thank you for the compliment, means a lot, big man.” 

“Don’t call me that,” Dream chuckled. “I’ll mute up, alright?” 

Tommy started the stream, and the plot played through just as they thought it would be. He still felt beaten up about how he couldn’t use his voice — if he did it would be way more powerful, and the chat would’ve definitely liked it more. 

He saw a message saying “why isn’t Dream speaking” and he felt terrible, knowing that his audience were disappointed in him not using his voice, and he couldn’t do anything about it, unless they wanted to hear him cough and cough more. 

He spent a moment off from the lore when he wasn’t completely necessary and tweeted the simple sentence: “I’m sorry! I wasn’t feeling completely well so I thought typing would be better. If any animators need my lines I will be more than happy to send you a re-recorded version when I get better <3 Love you guys and please remember that everything in Tommy’s stream is lore, not real, so don’t send hate to anyone in the story if you didn’t like their characters. Thank you!” The last sentence was to distract people from completely focusing on him being sick. He didn’t want too much attention, and within seconds his entire comment section was flooded with “hope you feel better”s and “no one deserves hate comments”s. He sighed and tuned back into Tommy’s stream. 

Tommy was talking to Tubbo, the two getting into an argument. He typed in his last lore line in chat before logging off, leaning back into his chair and scrolling nonchalantly through his phone. 

A text from George. 

“Hey! You alright? I saw that you’re sick and I just wanted to check on you. Call me if you can.” Was the message George sent him. This was the first time had the chance to talk to George ever since he found out his little situation. He debated whether if to tell George, or at least ask him about it, or whether if he would be calling George in the first place. 

He probably should, knowing that it’ll worry George if not. He didn’t want to seen suspicious, even though he might still end up worrying George with whatever state he was in. 

Dream called. 

“Hey George,” He whispered into his phone. 

“Hi Dream, you haven’t spoken to me since three days ago so I just wanted,” Dream coughed, interrupting George, “-so I just wanted to check on you, see how you’ve been doing. Judging from that cough, I don’t really think you’d be doing too well.” George sighed. 

“Thanks for calling, though. Yeah, I am coughing more than I should, but I think I’ll be fine,” He was lying. He wasn’t going to be fine, but there was nowhere George was going to find out about anything, and if anything he wanted to take this slow, not to mention how he literally only just found out about something about himself and each other. “I’ve not been talking to people. Getting rest. You know the drill.” 

“Hmmmmm,” He heard George hum. “That’s not completely true, right? Sapnap said he talked to you, but refused to tell me how you were doing.” 

That asshole. 

“Oh,” Dream frantically searched his mind for something to say. “There’s nothing wrong, I’m just coughing more and more.” He found himself spitting out words. He was nervous, in every single way possible. He didn’t want to fuck his own life up, does he?

“Mmhmm,” George mumbled on the other end. “If you need me, just text me. I don’t know what Sapnap meant but I guess it’s nothing big, right?” 

“Nothing big,” Dream seemed to reassure himself. “I promise.” 

He had never even thought of straight up lying to George, not until now. He just needed some mental help. Everything was a little too overwhelming for his liking, and the pressure on his shoulders suddenly became too much. If only he could slow it down. 

“Great,” George exclaimed sheepishly. It was a weird mix of tones but Dream didn’t really seem to catch it. “If you don’t have anything to say to me I’ll leave you right there.”A series of coughs. Petals drifting from everywhere. He felt a little dizzy. 

“Yeah,” Dream stumbled over his words. “Yeah. ‘love you George,” He struggled to catch the petals before frowning at his own words and searching his mind for something to distract George, who was probably also frowning, from what he just blurted out. “Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine. I will probably like show up to your next jackbox stream or something like that,” A cough. “If you want me there, of course.” 

“I want you there,” George said. “Go have some rest now. And drink a lot of water.”

Those were the last words before George hung up. It was still noon, but he already felt dizzy. Since he always told George everything, he felt wrong to lie to George; also, he also fought his entire mind to not flirt with George, like how he would used to, because it would get weird for him, and if George found out it wasn’t going to be clean. Not at all. 

He looked up into the ceiling again. He found himself doing that often, maybe because he knew that if he looked up, then he wouldn’t cough as often; or maybe because he wanted to hold back tears he didn’t even knew existed. Whatever. It doesn’t even matter. 

He sighed. 

How would he even do this?


	3. A Phone Call, A Visit Soon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> George finds out a lil’ more...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m writing something else soon XD  
> High school AU..... wait for it hehehe

Dream spent that evening sitting with Patches, nonchalantly looking up, on google again (even though he has probably learnt that google just wasn’t the most reliable source), to find “what does it mean to like your best friend.” And yet, as expected, it wasn’t the most helpful piece of information, mainly because people on the internet have trouble differentiating romantic love and platonic love. Though he was in no place to comment on that. 

In love with a guy. In love with George. 

Dream was in love with George. 

And Dream needs George to love him, or Dream will promptly die of suffocation. Nothing too new. 

He felt himself cough. At that point it wasn’t bothering him too much anymore. It had become part of him. Coughing up flowers was annoying, but at least his room always smelled nice. 

Yeah, he was trying to make excuses. 

He wanted this hanahaki to be over as quick as possible, so it was probably the time to take action. After all, it was going to be worth a try regardless. 

His first step? Probably still keep up the flirting. If he could make George flustered it might as well be worth a try. 

Second step? Show George his face sometime. Maybe in the midst of flirting. He didn’t know. 

Maybe it was time for them to meet up. Wait. Forget about that. It was a bad idea. Dream didn’t want George to see him cough. It would be against the point. George would know. He would find out somehow. He didn’t want that to happen. 

But anyways, starting that night would not be a bad idea. He knew that Sapnap had nothing planned, and neither should George, unless he had something with Quackity or Karl, which Dream doubted. 

“Hey, do you guys wanna call. I’m bored.” He immediately typed into the Dream Team discord chat. 

“Sure.” Sapnap replied. 

“Gimme a second, I need crisps.” George replied too. 

Sapnap and Dream hopped onto the call together, waiting for George. Sapnap turned his face cam on, and Dream debated whether if to do the same. His heart was pounding on his chest like a restless frog, waiting for the princess to recognize him, to kiss him. He sighed. 

“You alright?” Sapnap asked. 

“Yeah,” Dream said, coughing and catching his breath.

“Really?” Sapnap repeated his question. 

“No, not really. Doing terribly. I don’t really know what to do.” Dream admitted. He did have a plan, true, but that basically told him nothing except the fact that he basically needed to keep up with what he was already doing, but with a different intent behind it, and he didn’t know how to hide that intent, and if he should. 

“I expected that,” Sapnap sighed. “I don’t know either. It seems like I don’t know you two well enough, but ironically we probably know each other the most.” Dream agreed with silence. 

George’s icon showed up on screen, soon, he turned on his web cam, showing his face, glowing because of the bright monitor, with a large bowl of fruit salad sitting right next to him. 

“Sorry guys, I just needed some snacks but I forgot I didn’t have crisps,” George said. “So I got fruit salad. I am very hungry.” 

“No worries,” Dream was smiling. “I didn’t want to specifically talk about anything anyways. Getting sick was boring and I needed alive human beings to talk to. As much as I love fan art and fan fictions, I am really getting tired of reading and scrolling.” That bit was in fact true. He spent two hours trying to read through romance fictions of him and George to look for inspirations, and it basically gave him nothing except for cheesy pickup lines (Author’s note: THIS IS NOT TO SAY FAN FICTIONS ARE BAD I AM LITERALLY WRITING ONE RN PLEASE DONT TAKE THIS WRONGLY). It just seemed as if none of them applied to his situation and that has been stressing him out. 

George raised an eyebrow as he popped a piece of what looks like apple into his red lips. Goddamn Dream needs to stop looking at them. “DNF fanfics?” 

“Yeah,” Dream admitted. “I just sometimes like to see what our fans are up to, you know?” Sapnap shuffled in his seat, earning a stare from Dream, even though he knew that Sapnap couldn’t see him. George stayed silent too, presumably eating, at least that was what Dream assumed. He didn’t bother looking, and instead buried his face in his hands, afraid to look. 

“Tell me if you ever read PG content,” Sapnap broke the awkward silence. “Because if you do you can always, you know, call us.” Dream wheezed at the comment, coughing lightly in the process and ignoring whatever came out of his mouth.   
“Sapnap! What is wrong with you!” George literally screeched into the headphones. 

“No Sap, what is wrong with you,” Dream echoed George, who was obviously still mad, or flustered, whichever, because his entire face turned peachy pink. “I read a few teen and up ratings. Some of them were actually well written.” Sapnap seemed to be pleased with where the conversation was going, because he bobbed in his seat. 

“I read them sometimes, too,” Sapnap said. “It’s a little weird on my part, because I read about, you know, you guys liking each other and I, in the stories, am always the guy who knows every single piece of shit you guys do and guide you all. It makes me feel more powerful than I already am.” Dream huffed at that, muting beforehand so George wouldn’t know. That was technically true, knowing that Sapnap clearly knows Dream likes George now, and if he doesn’t like him back Dream will literally pass away. So ironic. 

“What about you Georgie,” Dream asked as he unmuted. George didn’t seem to notice his absence.   
“What?” George seemed to be spacing out. 

Dream pointed out. “Do you read like fan fictions?” 

George was heavily blushing. “I look at more fan art than fan fictions, but I sometimes read if someone tells me if it’s really good. I guess.” Oh. Dream thought to himself. So he didn’t exactly say the wrong thing. That was not as awkward as he thought it would be. 

“I’m impressed,” Sapnap said. “I’m very shocked to know that you both read stuff about kissing each other and can still talk to each other just fine.” 

“That does-” Dream heard George shout before he could say something. “That doesn’t mean anything Sapnap.” Dream wheezed and so did Sapnap. 

“But you like it,” Dream winked behind his avatar, even though George and Sapnap couldn’t see his face. 

“I might,” George mumbled. “And I might not.” 

And suddenly, Dream started to cough, and even though he tried his best to mute up, he couldn’t, because his entire body was twitching rapidly as his entire body arched with each movement, chest aching. He couldn’t speak, not that he really wanted to say anything. Flower petals flew rapidly out of his mouth, him choking on it little by little, and as he desperately tried to remove the petals, he choked on them a little more. 

“Dream?” George’s voice came through the headphones. “Dream? Are you alright?”   
“Give him time, George.” Sapnap replied for Dream, which he was thankful for. 

“But…” George wanted to say but it seemed as if he couldn’t find the words to finish his sentence. George stopped saying anything. Both of Dream’s friends sat in silence to wait for Dream to finish with his coughing. 

It took Dream about 3 whole minutes to come to a complete halt, and by then his eyes were already blurred with tears that were running down his cheeks and out of his nose. Spit coated his lips but it wasn’t the time to care about body image. He felt as if he had already died once, but according to the website he searched on, this wasn’t even close to where he was going to get much later. 

“Dream?” George asked again, this time even softer and tentative. Dream recognized that voice, and it was one of the things that Dream loved about George. “Are you alright to talk now or should we give you a little more?” 

“I’m…” He choked on a petal for a bit before pulling it out of his mouth. The flower as clean as new, and somehow he didn’t feel like it was exactly that weird. “I’m alright now. I’m sorry.” 

“Don’t be,” Sapnap cut in, voice laced with concern and something else he couldn’t exactly fathom. Dream peered at his phone, seeing that a new message had popped up, from Sapnap. He reached for it. “It’s not your fault that you’re still sick.”

He read the message. 

“It’s triggered by your emotions right?” Sapnap’s text read. 

“It sucks to be me, I guess,” He felt the need to joke a little bit, seeing that both of his friends were immensely concerned with his state of being. At least he needed to look strong. “I mean, it’s not that bad, yet.” 

Both George and Sapnap stared at him in disbelief. 

“I don’t know, man. I don’t know what to do now.” He texted back to Sapnap. 

“Dream,” George said, shifting in his chair a little, worrying him a little. He knows that whenever George does it, he has something on his tongue that he just wouldn’t get to, unless it was urgent. “You’re hiding something from us, or just from me, right? What is it and why won’t you tell me?”

“You’re asking too many things at once.” Sapnap deadpanned, probably not intentionally. 

“So it’s just me who doesn’t know,” George whispered to himself. “Sure. You know what Dream, if you don’t want to answer any of those questions just ignore them, because I’m sure you have a reason for… things. In general.” 

“I’m glad you trust me,” Dream mumbled. “But I think I might need to head off now. I’m sorry for worrying you guys. Bye.” He said before he left the call, hands still shaking because of the cough he had to endure in the past few minutes. 

He didn’t know what George thought after that. Maybe it was the wrong thing to do, not telling George about, everything, possibly, especially now that he knows that Sapnap knows what’s going on, and Dream knows how bad it felt to be left out. 

He recalled a few years ago, when his IRL friends hung out without him while all agreeing that they shouldn’t tell Dream, just to make fun of him somehow later. When Dream found out, he went through one of the worst days of his life — drinking as an underaged kid in his own house with his door locked. His parents had to break his room door only to find their son half dead on the ground. From then on he made little real life friends and stuck completely to Sapnap. He didn’t even know George then. 

It felt horrible, and he didn’t want George to feel the same too, though alas, he could do nothing about it. 

He hated feeling helpless. 

Wandering off his chair, he found himself in the bathroom, violently puking into his poor toilet, even though he didn’t feel that sick. His body was filled with harsh emotions, some of which he barely remembered feeling. Hopelessness, love, hate… just feelings, and that was what made him sick. 

Dream was getting sick of those flowers. Those god damn petals that keep him like this. 

If it wasn’t for the flowers, if it wasn’t for this hanahaki he would’ve been just fine. Another manhunt video would’ve been up. He would be joking with is friends on call, on someone else’s stream, inventing something stupid for an ever stupider prompt Quackity wrote or something. He didn’t want to be like this. 

After brushing his teeth, Dream climbed on bed, not bothering to even shut off his PC nor changing his clothes. That can all wait ‘till tomorrow.

A call was incoming. He raised his phone in the air to look. 

It was from the last person he wanted to talk to right then, but he felt as if he had no choice but to answer. 

“Hey George.” Dream mumbled into the air as he put his friend (crush?) on speaker and tossed the phone to the side of his torso. 

“I thought you might want to talk,” George’s voice soft and smooth like chocolate milk. “You’re not the type to just leave like that.” 

That was partially true. He did want to talk to someone, but he was definitely not ready to talk to George about whatever he’s been going through. 

“I didn’t mean to lie,” Was all that Dream could find himself saying. 

“Then don’t,” George said. “Then don’t. Talk to me about it. I’ll see what I can do for you.” 

“I don’t think you can help me on this,” Dream answered and sighed. It wasn’t like George can just arbitrarily make himself fall in love with Dream and the problem would be solved. Love doesn’t work like that. It never would work like that. If it was just that easy then arranged marriages will still be legal and moral, but obviously they’re not. “I’m sorry George.” 

“How would you know?” 

Dream thought for a good five seconds before blurting out. “Have you ever been in love, George?”

“I don’t know what this has to do with your coughing,” George mumbled, “But if you’re very curious, the answer to that question is ‘yes.’”

“Wait,” Dream rethought that. “Let me rephrase it. Have you ever been sick of love?” He meant it physically, like the hanahaki. He coughed again. But it seems as if he was starting to being sick of it, mentally too. He could barely keep up with any conversation by now, and even when he did his coughing would take over. 

“Maybe yes, maybe no. I don’t really know what that means,” George admitted. Dream sighed heavily. “I’m not familiar with the concept of, you know, romantic love. I’ve had those occasions, you know, but I am a Minecraft YouTuber and Twitch streamer, so you don’t get a lot of those, right?” George attempted to add a touch of humor in there, but it did the opposite. Dream’s stomach clenched out of a feeling indescribable, making him sick and wanting to cry at the same time. 

“Yeah.” He said before pressing the mute button and rushing to the toilet again with the phone in his hand, spilling as much out of himself as his body would allow into the toilet. Petals flew in the process, all around the bathroom. 

“Why,” George asked from the other side. “Are you lovesick?”

He hummed before he realized that he was muted, and it must’ve taken him a little too long to rinse his teeth and move back to bed. 

“Dream? You still there?” George asked. 

“Yeah,” He unmuted. “Bad cough.”

George went silent. 

“George?” Dream inquired. 

“Dream, I’ve read it somewhere, in a manga, I think, with Sapnap, about-” George started. 

“I know where you’re going and I want you to stop there. I know what’s going on.” Dream cut George off, knowing that bringing the topic up would make him cough even more, and it was never what he wanted. 

“Dream,” George’s entire body seemed to soften up, and it seemed to melt Dream, like a bar of chocolate melting in a bowl of hot water, drifting away. “You know what’s going to happen, right?” 

“Yeah George,” A cough. “I know. If I don’t make them like me back.” They. He used the word they. George doesn’t know, and he didn’t want to hint George in any way, afraid that George would somehow figure out, and if George didn’t like him that way it would be devastating for him. He didn’t want that. 

“Oh Dream…” George’s voice faded into the distance. Like the wind. They spent the next 2 minutes together, on call, in full silence, before both of them decided to speak up at the same time. 

“Um…” They both said, and laughed a little at how in sync they were. 

“You go first,” George said. 

“‘kay.” Dream mumbled, still pondering whether if he should ask George first. “Can you come to Florida, with me? I don’t want to die alone,” He coughed. “I should probably ask Sapnap too.” 

“Strangely enough,” George answered in quite an interesting tone. “I was about to ask something similar. And yes, I can. When do you want me there?” 

“In two weeks? Or maybe one? We can look at the tickets tomorrow together if you want,” A series of coughs. “That is, if you’re comfortable.” 

George huffed on the other end, and a for a moment Dream thought he might’ve done something wrong. 

“What?” Dream asked. 

“Nothing really,” The brunette explained. “It just suddenly struck me that my best buddy is dying of a mythical disease and I am to visit him, and that will be the first time I ever see your face: you spitting flowers.” 

To be honest, that sounded a little bit more interesting than it actually is. Dream laughed a little at the absurdity. 

“Yeah well, do you want to facetime some time soon then?” Dream proposed. George stuttered. 

“I didn’t mean to pressure you!” He exclaimed. “But if you want, I’m always ready to, you know, find out new things, I guess.” 

“Tomorrow then? I need some rest.” A cough and some flowers. Nothing too special. 

George hummed. “Look after yourself, alright? Ask me for love advice, whatever, I’ll always be there for you. So will Sapnap, alright? I’ll be talking to Sapnap after you go to sleep too, just so you know.” 

Dream hummed in response too, and there was a beep on the other side. George had hung up, and he thanked him for doing that, because Dream knew that if George didn’t hang up there they would’ve probably fell asleep on call together. He didn’t feel like hanging up on George — he would never. 

He sighed and immediately the darkness of the void hit him, and he fell asleep with his phone still next to his torso.


	4. I’ll Show You What I Look Like

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dream shows George his face, and George sees Dream cough flowers on the call

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi I just failed my maths test and I still be failing my Business AND I am writing less and less every day... but enjoy.

He woke up at twelve in the morning. He had slept for fifteen hours, and he was in fact, still tired as fuck. Dream groaned and sat up, his phone gently vibrating besides him from an alarm clock set five hours ago. He picked it up, hushed it, and tossed it to the other side of the bed. He closed his eyes again.

A faint sound called for him, and for a moment Dream forgot where he was, instead focused on himself because he couldn’t breathe. Or at least, not as freely as he could just yesterday, he believed. 

Looking around, he saw Patches, nudging his feet and standing besides a thin blanket of petals. He cursed and climbed up. 

The petals from a few days ago seemed to have disappeared, quite to his liking, but the scent still lingered in the room like a top class perfume he would very much like gone. But then again, he had no choice. He wondered if the scent was bad for him, or his kitten, or George, when he would get there in about a week. 

Shit. He promised to call George when he fell asleep last night. 

His phone was, in fact, almost dead, but he still saw the messages George had sent him during his sleep. George bought a ticket for next Wednesday, which was 6 days in the future. He had a little time to prepare himself and at least have fun with his best friend, no matter how the little situation of his turned out. George also told him to not tell their fans about it, knowing it would probably blow up the fandom, and it wouldn’t be too good considering that some of them still had lore streams in the week and George doesn’t think it was a good idea to steal clout, which he completely agreed with. 

Patches gently purred next to his feet, and he called George with Patches as background music. 

“Hey,” Dream murmured. “I just woke up. How are you, George?” 

The boy on the other end hummed in response. “I just woke up too, don’t worry.” 

A pause. “Isn’t it like, five in the afternoon there?” Dream wheezed. 

“4:56. You’re close enough. I never knew you were so good at maths.” George retorted. 

“Awww,” Dream debated whether if to say the line he had thought over multiple times. “But you love me regardless.” 

“Don’t you have a girl to go after? Save it for her asshole.” George huffed on the other side. 

Right. George didn’t know Dream liked George; nor did the Brit know that Dream might like a gender other than female. Either way he wasn’t planning on letting George know anytime soon anyways, so he tried his best to laugh at that joke. 

“Dream,” George’s voice came on the other side of the phone, cutting in between Dream’s combinations of fake laughter, coughing, and random sounds of him trying to keep himself in line. “Is that joke too far?” 

Dream stopped for a moment. 

“You don’t laugh like that,” George explained, as if Dream asked. “And you wouldn’t pause for a few seconds before laughing at a joke. I’m sorry if I took that joke too far-”

“You’re alright,” Dream intercepted. He didn’t want George feeling too guilty. “It’s just… a sensitive topic. For now. Just like how you wouldn’t joke about killing Trump in his public speeches, you know?” He tried to lighten the mood, but obviously George wasn’t biting. 

“I’m sorry,” George’s voice softened. 

“Don’t be.” 

“If you insist,” George’s tone turned into nothing but a faint whisper.

“Are you ready for your trip here?” Dream decided to change the topic, all at once, so nothing seemed too awkward. He didn’t want to end a conversation with just George apologizing and feeling bad about it afterwards, even though if he was George he would’ve done it too. 

George sniffled. “I’m going to drop my pets off the day before I leave at my mom’s. I’ll be streaming the day after tomorrow for some casual stuff and to tell my fans I’ll be taking a while off because, you know, you aren’t feeling well or something, I haven’t thought about it yet. Not that I’ll tell them we’ll be meeting up though,” George took a deep breath in. “I’ll get things done, don’t worry about me, worry about yourself.” 

A cough. A flower. “Shit,” Dream murmured, attempting to rub his nose with his arm but forgot that that arm was propping him up from bed. He almost fell. “I trust you George. Wait, hold on,” A thought suddenly popped into Dream’s head. “Yesterday we said we were going to facetime, with my face, right? Why don’t we do that now?” 

“You sure?” George tentatively asked, as if he didn’t want it to happen. Dream knew it pretty well, and he recall face turning red every single time George pestered him to at least send George a snippet of his face on snapchat or show just a little bit of hair, or chin, in the discord calls. 

“‘m sure, I don’t want the first time for you to see what I fucking look like to be in the airport where you literally have no idea where I am because you’re so short.” That was half of a lie, not completely. It was true that he was eager to prove to George that he wasn’t actually a gremlin, but the other half of him just wanted to see George, when they’re not streaming, nor tired, just them. At the thought of that he coughed again, and he winced because of the harsh feeling against his throat. 

“Then see you on Discord.” George said gleefully before hanging up, reminding Dream that his phone was almost out of battery. He stepped to his desk and plugged it in before his stomach growled. He had forgotten to eat, although he didn’t feel like eating on call anyways though. 

He had less than a few minutes before his last chance of backing out goes down the drain. Dream, fortunately, knew what he was doing though, and bring Patches onto his lap, which she happily accepted, and turned his PC on and accepted the call request from George. 

Those seconds felt like longer moments than what he felt in real life. 

He didn’t start with his face cam on, and of course he wouldn’t. There should be an aspect of suspense in there, whether if George liked it or not. 

“Hey Dream,” George had already turned on his camera, the lens directly facing his face, no more, no less. George’s face was slightly red, the color of him just waking up; his hair was rather ruffled, which disproves how George said that he wakes up with his hair tidy. “It’s what you promised and you’re not backing off from it. Although then again, I’m not here to make you uncomfortable.” 

Dream smiled a little. He was looking through his options to make sure the camera is linked to his actual USB camera sitting on the top of his PC instead of a random security camera outside of his house, and it was actually a thing because, well, he was in Florida, and you never know what’s outside of your door. It could be a fuck ton of bees or a man with guns as fingers. You’d never know. 

“I know babe,” That slipped out of his mouth as if it was lubricated. He huffed at it. “Just give me a second alright. I’m just checking my settings.” 

“Take your time,” George wobbled on his chair lightly, clearly having fun, or nervous. One of the two. “We don’t have to do it today.”

“I told you George, I’m not nervous,” Coughs. “And by the way, I’m ready, so open your eyes for a handsome Floridan man who just might take your heart.” He said as he moved his mouse and clicked the one button which he always feared to even hover his cursor over. 

George looked up, looked down again, and then looked up as if to double check something, and continued to stare at whatever was on the screen. 

Replacing the green — to George it should be yellow — icon was, as Dream said, a lightly tanned Floridan man with green — again it should look like yellow — eyes and a charming smile. He definitely wasn’t the prettiest, in comparison to Tik Tok standards, but in no means unattractive; in fact, quite the opposite. 

“Like what you see?” Dream teased — it felt like the perfect thing to say at that moment, and realized his mistake when he started to violently cough, breaking their stare as George’s expression morphed into something more than admiration, but also shock, when he saw Dream coughing flowers and petals, sending multiple shades of pink flying through the air. 

“Dream-” George started, and Dream, amidst all the action, still managed to raise a hand to stop George right there, knowing it would only bring concern to the conversation, and he wanted it to stay as lighthearted as possible. 

A minute was enough for the cough to die down. 

“One positive of that is that at least I don’t have to buy perfume for the room, I’ll always end up smelling like sakura.” Dream dismissed it with a wave of his hand. 

“You know,” George said, obviously less tense now. “My reaction was pretty appropriate for someone who just saw their best friend for 7 whole damn years, for the first time, coughing up flowers that obviously don’t belong there in Florida in fucking November.” 

Dream shrugged. “A lot of things can happen in this world, I mean, you never know. It’s up to you if you want to believe in me or not, and either way you’re coming here with me.” 

That was true, but it was also hard for Dream himself, considering he had only found out about this disease like, what, 5 days ago? And he had embraced it, knowing that doubting it would do him no good. 

God, it was like the 5 stages of grief for him. 

“What makes you think I wouldn’t believe in you, per se?” George raised an eyebrow. Dream raised an eyebrow back, and now that George could finally see him, their conversations went a lot smoother: less talking, more facial expressions, until one of them couldn’t hold in either a laughter or a mild cough and both of them ended up wheezing into their microphones. 

“It’s genuinely nice to see you, Clay.” George said. 

“Me too,” Dream admitted. “I can finally feel like I’m not hiding anything from you. It’s hard when I have to.” That was what it looked like on the surface. There were much more things Dream rather kept hidden in that point of time, and more than one of them were related to the small brunette sitting on the other side of the screen, much needed to be said. 

“I’m, um, going to head to my lunch-slash-dinner, if that’s alright with you.” George said after a moment of unsettling silence while Dream thought to himself. 

“Yeah,” Dream stuttered. “I need to eat too. For me it’s still lunch but it’s my first meal of the day, so see ya’, I guess.” 

And so they hopped off the call that revealed a little bit more about Dream, or Clay, as George managed to call him at the end of that conversation. Dream just hoped that the next time they’re allowed to share more about each other, it’ll turn out just as smoothly.


End file.
